


Meeting Marcus

by cresswells



Series: Fallout [5]
Category: Bloodlines Series - Richelle Mead, Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-17
Updated: 2012-08-17
Packaged: 2017-11-12 08:44:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/488958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cresswells/pseuds/cresswells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Sydney finds herself face-to-face with the one person who can tell her what she wants to know: the truth.</p>
<p>Gen, some Sydney/Adrian hints</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting Marcus

She recognises him instantly as the man from Clarence's photograph.

He's hardly changed in the few years since it was taken. He looks to be in his early twenties now, which fits Clarence's account. He's still very handsome, in a conventional way, with his straight blonde hair cut short and his shirt sleeves rolled up to expose tanned, muscular forearms. But what really catches her eye is the strange indigo tattoo marring his cheek.

Her heart plummets as she catches sight of it. She'd tried to rationalise his tattoo, the Alchemists' missing records and Clarence's vague account. But now that she sees him in the flesh, she knows that she can't possibly lie to herself any longer. The glimmer of gold beneath the lines of indigo is unmistakable. Marcus Finch is an ex-Alchemist.

Which means that the Alchemists have been lying to her.

A dull weight settles in the pit of her stomach. She'd known all along, of course, that they'd lied to her about Marcus Finch's whereabouts. It had taken five days for Sydney to track him down. In that time, she'd surmised that whoever Marcus Finch was, he really didn't want to be found. _And if he's hiding from anyone,_ she guesses, _it's probably Alchemists. Like me._

She considers leaving. Walking away from her quarry. The Alchemists need never know about this journey. It had been a crazy decision to come here anyway. Sydney had been collecting together as much information as she could possibly find on the Warriors of Light, and already, her research had filled three files. To her knowledge, Marcus Finch has only had one encounter with them. Hardly worth the hours of research and the gruelling journey she'd taken to find him.

And yet…

Her thoughts betray her, straying as they so often do recently, to the day she'd first seen Clarence's photograph of Finch. The day she'd come to a startling revelation regarding her feelings for a certain moroi, and his feelings for her. The kiss she hadn't been able to forget or regret, no matter how hard she tried.

If that kiss or the lingering feelings it had evoked in her were ever discovered, maybe she'd need to hide from her people, too. And this could be her only chance to talk to the strange man with the indigo tattoo.

Something about the memory of that day gives her strength, even as equal amounts of shame and longing curdle in her stomach. She takes a confident step forward, and another, until she is standing right behind the man she has travelled so far to find.

"Marcus Finch?" she asks in a clear, steady voice. He turns, his face revealing polite interest; then shock as he registers her lily tattoo.

"No – " he begins. She raises her hands in the universal sign of surrender.

"My name is Sydney Sage," she says quickly, "and I'm here on my own behalf, no one else's."

He eyes her suspiciously. "What do you want?" he asks sharply. Sydney pauses. What _does_ she want? The question causes a fresh bout of longing to well up within her. _Adrian_. She wants Adrian.

"The truth," she says finally, daring to make eye contact for the first time with this strange man whose very existence defies everything she's been taught to believe about her people and their ways. "I'm here to learn the truth."

She knows she's said the right thing when Marcus takes a step back and nods once. "Well, then, Sydney Sage," he says, his eyes evaluating her keenly. "You've come to the right person."


End file.
